Flotation vest

ABSTRACT

Foam buoyancy .[.section.]. .Iadd.sections .Iaddend.carried in the front of a flotation vest are formed in four separate pieces that are cut from rectangular sheets of buoyancy material without any waste material.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to an improved flotation vest and moreparticularly to an improved arrangement for use of the buoyancy materialcarried by the vest.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a typical way of making a flotation vest, an outer shell or envelopeof nylon or other suitable material is formed in the shape of a vest,and closed-cell polyvinylchloride foam or other buoyancy material isinserted into the shell before the shell is completely closed. Theflotation material usually includes a back piece and left and rightfront sections with the upper portion of each front section havingcurved edges to form arm hole openings in combination with the back andto form a neck hole opening with the back. The cutting of these curvededges from rectangular sheets results in wasted foam material, andrequires special dies to cut the curved edges on a mass produced basis.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an improvement over the foregoing systemin that the front pieces are formed in a manner to eliminate wastematerial and to simplify the cutting operations. More specifically, theleft and right front sections of the flotation material are each formedwith a lower body piece and an upper shoulder piece. These pieces havestraight edges and are essentially rectangular except that the upperedge of the body piece and the lower edge of the shoulder piece whichengage are formed so that the shoulder pieces extend upwardly andoutwardly away from the central edge of the body piece at an angle. Information of the pieces, the left and right body pieces form arectangular section when their upper edges are in edge-to-edge contact.Similarly, when the shoulder pieces are placed in edge-to-edgeengagement, a rectangular section is formed. Thus, the pieces are formedwith no loss of buoyancy material.

In a preferred form of the invention, the central edge of the body pieceis longer than the outer side edge of the body piece so that the upperedge of the piece extends at an angle with respect to the lower edge.The shoulder pieces are simply formed as rectangles. With thatarrangement, when the lower edge of the shoulder piece engages theangled upper edge of the body piece, the shoulder piece is tilted orangled outwardly towards the shoulder so that a portion of the upperedge of the body piece and the outer edge of the shoulder piece and anupper portion of the back piece form an arm hole. Correspondingly, theneck opening edge of the shoulder piece is sloped properly to define theneck opening in combination with the other shoulder piece and with theback piece.

For adult sizes of flotation vests, the average or central height of thebody piece may be made equal to the height or length of the shoulderpiece such that when the two body pieces are placed edge-to-edge withtheir upper edges in engagement, and the two shoulder pieces are placedwith their lower edges engaging, the overall height of the body piecesis equal to the overall height of the shoulder pieces. Consequently,those four pieces can be cut from a single rectangular sheet if desired.A one-piece back portion is equal to the combined height of the frontbody pieces such that it too can be formed from the same rectangularsection of material if front and back pieces are to have the samethickness. Thus, the buoyancy material may be simply formed as fiveseparate pieces, which when properly arranged can be cut from a singlerectangular sheet without any wasted material.

SUMMARY OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a completed life vest utilizing theteachings of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the five pieces of buoyancymaterial needed for the vest of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows the five pieces of buoyancy material fitted together toform a single rectangular sheet from which they can be cut;

FIG. 4 shows two front body pieces positioned with their upper edges inengagement to illustrate that these body pieces may be formed from asheet of material separate from the shoulder and back buoyancy pieces;

FIG. 5 shows two of the shoulder pieces positioned in edge to edgerelation; and

FIG. 6 shows a back buoyancy piece by itself.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The flotation vest or life jacket illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a backsection 12, a right front section 14, and a left front section 16. Thefront sections 14 and 16 are secured to the back section at their upperedges and at their lower side edges to form left and right armholes 18and 20, while the inner upper edges of the front sections and the upperedge of the back section form the neck opening 22. A belt 24 attached tothe front and back sections enables the front central edges of the frontsection to be held together after the wearer has donned the vest. Azipper is usually also provided.

The main portion of the vest visible in FIG. 1 is really an outer shell25 or envelope formed of nylon or other suitable material which carriesbuoyancy material to help the user float. Typically, buoyancy materialis inserted into the shell through its lower edge before the shell iscompletely sewn closed. A variety of buoyancy materials may be utilized,but usually a closed cell synthetic foam material made ofpolyvinylchloride or polyethylene is employed.

In accordance with the present invention, the buoyancy material isformed of five separate pieces as illustrated in FIG. 2. This includes aback piece 26, a right front low body piece 28, a right front shoulderpiece 30, a left front body piece 32, and a left front shoulder piece34. As can be seen, the front body pieces mate together to conform tothe front configuration of the vest as illustrated in FIG. 1. Brokenlines are shown in FIG. 1 where the front buoyancy pieces engage withinthe envelope 25.

When the various foam pieces are cut, they fit together as shown in FIG.3, creating a single rectangular sheet such that in cutting them thereis no waste material. If desired, the upper edges of the back pieces 26may be trimmed slightly as illustrated in FIG. 2, to better create thedesired shape.

Of course, it is not necessary that the five pieces be formed from asingle sheet as illustrated in FIG. 3, but instead the body pieces 28and 32 may be formed separately from a sheet of material, as illustratedin FIG. 4. Similarly, the shoulder pieces 34 may be formed as separatepieces from a separate sheet, as shown in FIG. 5; and the back piece 26shown in FIG. 6 may be formed from a separate sheet of material.

Considering the front buoyancy pieces in more detail, it may be seenfrom FIG. 2 that the front body piece 28 includes a lower edge 28a, acentral edge 28b, a side edge 28c, and an upper edge 28d. The centraledge 28b and the side edge 28c are parallel to each other and they areperpendicular to the lower edge 28a. The central edge 28b is longer thanthe side edge 28c such that the upper straight edge 28d extends at anangle with respect to the edge 28a. That is, if the upper and loweredges were extended to intersect they would form an angle. Preferably,that angle is in the area of 20°. Correspondingly the angle formed bythe upper edge 28d and the central edge 28b is about 70°. The body piece32 is identical to piece 28 except that it is reversed so that thelonger central edge 32b is adjacent to the central edge 28b of the piece28.

The shoulder piece 30 is rectangular and includes a lower edge 30a whichengages the upper edge 28d of the body piece 28, a neck opening edge30b, an arm opening edge 30c, and an upper edge 30d. The shoulder piece34 is identical to the piece 30.

Thus, it can be seen that when the lower edges 30a and 34a of theshoulder pieces are placed respectively into engagement with the upperedges 28d and 32d of the body pieces 28 and 32, with the neck openingshoulder piece edges 30b and 34b intersecting the central edges 28b and32b of the body pieces, the slope of the upper walls 28d and 32d of thebody pieces cause the shoulder pieces 30 and 34 to extend outwardly awayfrom the central edges of the body pieces towards the wearer'sshoulders. The angle formed by the shoulder piece edge 30b and the bodypiece central edge 28b is preferably about 160°.

Note that the body pieces could be made completely rectangular and theshoulder pieces formed with their lower edges at an angle that wouldproduce the desired slope. Such an arrangement would still have theadvantage of straight line cuts which form rectangular sections so as toinvolve no waste material. However, this arrangement is lessadvantageous in that there would be less buoyancy material immediatelyunder the arm openings of the vest. Of course, the desired angle couldbe split between the shoulder pieces and the body pieces in whatevercombination desired so that neither the body pieces nor the shoulderpieces would be completely rectangular. Nevertheless, they would matetogether to form rectangular sections.

For adults, a single set of flotation pieces may be employed in that thebuoyancy requirement does not vary greatly. The girth of the vest may bevaried by varying the amount of material between the buoyancy pieces. Ina production version of the vest, the front body pieces 28 and 32 whenplaced together, as shown in FIG. 4, form a rectangle approximately19×91/2 inches, with the central edge 28b being about 11 inches and theshorter side 28c being about 8 inches. The shoulder pieces are about91/2×4 inches. Note that the length of a shoulder piece is equal to thewidth of a body piece, which may be convenient in cutting operations.Note also, that two of the shoulder pieces when placed side by side forma rectangle 91/2×8 inches which is equal to the rectangular lowerportion of the body piece 28, that is, not including the triangularupper portion. A body piece 28 could of course be formed in severalsections if desired.

It has been found that the convenient arrangement illustrated in FIG. 3,wherein the combined length or height of the shoulder pieces 30 and 34is equal to the combined length or height of the body pieces 28 and 32is not quite so satisfactory for children's sizes of the vest. With suchsmaller sizes the shoulder pieces are preferably shortened so that theircombined length or height is less than the combined length or height ofthe body pieces. This does not detract from the efficiency of theoperations. As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the body pieces andshoulder pieces may be totally formed from separate sheets of materialhaving the desired width or height. The slope of the shoulder pieces ispreferably sharper for children's sizes.

It may be desirable to have the front buoyancy pieces made from materialthicker than the back piece 26. With such an arrangement, all fivepieces could of course not be cut from a single section as shown in FIG.3, but again the convenience or efficiency of the arrangement is notlost in that the back pieces may be separately made from thinnermaterial and still have essentially the rectangular configuration. Insome instances it may be desirable to form the foam pieces in thinlayers which are stacked to obtain the desired thickness. In a preferredarrangement the front pieces are about 11/4 inches thick, and the backpiece is 3/4 inch thick. With 1/4 inch layers, five layers could be usedin front and three in back.

What is claimed is:
 1. A flotation vest having an outer shell includinga back section and left and right front sections joined to the backsection at the top and at the sides to form arm holes, and internalbuoyancy means carried by the shell and including front portions formedby at least four pieces of buoyancy material which when properly fittededgewise together form rectangular pieces such that there is no wastematerial in cutting the pieces from rectangular sheets, the frontbuoyancy portions include a lower body piece and a shoulder piececarried by each of the left and right front sections, each of said bodypieces having a lower edge, a central edge, a side edge, and an upperedge, each shoulder piece including a lower edge, an arm hole edge, aneck hole edge, and an upper edge, the shoulder piece lower edge beingpositioned to engage the body piece upper edge with said engaging edgesbeing formed to engage at an angle such that the arm hole edge and theneck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope at any angle upwardly andoutwardly away from the body piece central edge, the width of a shoulderpiece between the arm hole and neck hole edges being considerably lessthan the width of a body piece between its side and central edges sothat with the shoulder piece lower edge being positioned close to thebody piece central edge, a portion of the body piece upper edge forms anarm hole with the arm hole edge of a shoulder piece.
 2. The vest ofclaim 1 wherein said shoulder pieces are rectangular and each body piececentral edge is longer than its side edge so that the upper edge of eachbody piece is not parallel to its lower edge.
 3. The vest of claim 1wherein said body piece central edge is parallel to its side edge andperpendicular to said body piece lower edge.
 4. The vest of claim 3wherein said shoulder piece arm hole edge and neck hole edge areparallel to each other and perpendicular to the shoulder piece upperedge.
 5. The vest of claim 3 wherein the body pieces if placed withtheir upper edges engaging each other form a rectangle.
 6. The vest ofclaim 5 wherein the rectangle formed is about twice as long as it iswide.
 7. The vest of claim 5 wherein the combined height of two of thebody pieces when positioned with their upper edges engaging is equal tothe combined length of two shoulder pieces.
 8. The vest of claim 7including a back buoyancy piece the height of which is equal to thecombined height of two body pieces.
 9. The vest of claim 3 wherein theupper edge of the body piece forms an angle of approximately 20° withrespect to the lower edge of the body piece.
 10. The vest of claim 1wherein the neck hole edge of the shoulder piece intersects the centraledge of its adjacent body piece to form an angle of approximately 160°.11. The vest of claim 1 wherein the neck hole edge of a shoulder pieceforms an angle with the central edge of the engaging body piece, and thewidth of the shoulder piece is less than that of the engaging bodypiece.
 12. The vest of claim 1 wherein the length of a shoulder piece isabout equal to the width of a body piece.
 13. A flotation vest having anouter shell including a back section and left and right front sectionsjoined to the back sections at the top and at the sides to form armholes, and internal buoyancy means carried by the shell and includingfront portions formed by at least four pieces of buoyancy material whichwhen properly fitted edgewise together form rectangular pieces such thatthere is no waste material in cutting the pieces from rectangularsheets, the front buoyancy portions include a straight edged lower bodypiece and a straight edged shoulder piece carried by each of the leftand right front sections, each of said body pieces having a lower edge,a central edge perpendicular to the lower edge, a side edge parallel tocentral and shorter than the central edge, and an upper edge extendingit an angle of about 20° with respect to the lower edge, each shoulderpiece having a rectangular shape including a lower edge, an arm holeedge, a neck hole edge, and an upper edge, the shoulder piece lower edgebeing positioned to engage the body piece upper edge such that the armhole edge and the neck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope at an angleupwardly and outwardly away from the body piece central edge, the lengthof the shoulder piece lower edge being considerably shorter than thewidth of a body piece, and said outer shell is formed so that the neckhole edge of the shoulder piece intersects the upper end of the bodyportion central edge.
 14. The vest of claim 13 wherein the combinedheight of two of the body pieces when positioned with their upper edgesengaging to form a rectangle is equal to the combined height of twoshoulder pieces when positioned with their upper edges engaging to forma rectangle.
 15. The vest of claim 14 including a back buoyancy piecethe height of which is equal to the combined height of two body piecesso that the five buoyancy pieces when fit together form a rectangle andhence may be cut from a single rectangular sheet without any wastebuoyancy material.
 16. The vest of claim 14 wherein the height of ashoulder piece is equal to the width of a body piece. .Iadd.
 17. Aflotation vest having an outer shell including a back section and leftand right front sections joined to the back section at the top and atthe sides to form arm holes, and internal buoyancy means carried by theshell and including front portions formed by at least four quadrilateralpieces of buoyancy material which when properly fitted edgewise togetherform a single, substantially rectangular piece such that waste materialis minimized in cutting the pieces from rectangular sheets, the frontbuoyancy portions include a lower body piece and a shoulder piececarried by each of the left and right front sections, each of said bodypieces having a lower edge, a central edge, a side edge, and an upperedge, each shoulder piece including a lower edge, an arm hole edge, aneck hole edge, and an upper edge, the shoulder piece lower edge beingpositioned to engage the body piece upper edge with said engaging edgesbeing formed to engage at an angle such that the arm hole edge and theneck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope at an angle upwardly andoutwardly away from the body piece central edge. .Iaddend..Iadd.18. Thevest as recited in claim 17 wherein the width of a shoulder piecebetween the arm hole and neck hole edges being considerably less thanthe width of a body piece between its side and central edges so thatwith the shoulder piece lower edge being positioned close to the bodypiece central edge, a portion of the body piece upper edge forms an armhole with the arm hole edge of a shoulder piece. .Iaddend. .Iadd.19. Aflotation vest having an outer shell including a back section and leftand right front sections joined to the back section at the top and atthe sides to form arm holes, and internal buoyancy means carried by theshell and including front portions formed by at least four quadrilateralpieces of buoyancy material which when properly fitted edgewise togetherform a plurality of substantially rectangular pieces such that wastematerial is minimized in cutting the pieces from a plurality ofrectangular sheets, the front buoyancy portions include a lower bodypiece and a shoulder piece carried by each of the left and right frontsections, each of said body pieces having a lower edge, a central edge,a side edge, and an upper edge, each shoulder piece including a loweredge, an armhole edge, a neck hole edge and an upper edge, the shoulderpiece lower edge being positioned to engage the body piece upper edgewith said engaging edges being formed to engage at an angle such thatthe arm hole edge, and the neck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope atan angle upwardly and outwardly away from the body piece central edge,wherein the width of a shoulder piece between the arm hole and neck holeedges being considerably less than the width of a body piece between itsside and central edges so that a portion of the body piece upper edgeforms an arm hole with the arm hole edge of a shoulder piece. .Iaddend..Iadd.20. A flotation vest having an outer shell including a backsection and left and right front sections joined to the back section atthe top and at the sides to form arm holes, and internal buoyancy meanscarried by the shell and including front portions formed by at leastfour quadrilateral pieces of buoyancy material which can be formed fromrectangular sheets of buoyancy material such that waste material isminimized in cutting the pieces from rectangular sheets, the frontbuoyancy portions include a lower body piece and a shoulder piececarried by each of the left and right front sections, each of said bodypieces having a lower edge, a central edge, a side edge, and an upperedge, each shoulder piece including a lower edge, an arm hole edge, aneck hole edge, and an upper edge, the shoulder piece lower edge beingpositioned to engage the body piece upper edge with said engaging edgesbeing formed to engage at an angle such that the arm hole edge and theneck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope at an angle upwardly andoutwardly away from the body piece central edge, wherein the width of ashoulder piece between the arm hole and neck hole edges beingconsiderably less than the width of a body piece between its side andcentral edges so that a portion of the body piece upper edge forms anarm hole with the arm hole edge of a shoulder piece. .Iaddend. .Iadd.21.The vest of claim 20 wherein said quadrilateral pieces of buoyancymaterial are formed from at least two rectangular sheets of buoyancymaterial. .Iaddend. .Iadd.22. A flotation vest having an outer shellincluding a back section and left and right front sections joined to theback section at the top and at the sides to form arm holes, and internalbuoyancy means carried by the shell and including front portions formedby at least four quadilateral pieces of buoyancy material formed suchthat waste material is minimized in cutting the pieces from a pluralityof sheets, the front buoyancy portions include a lower body piece and ashoulder piece carried by each of the left and right front sections,each of said body pieces having a lower edge, a central edge, a sideedge, and an upper edge, each shoulder piece including a lower edge, anarm hole edge, a neck hole edge, and an upper edge, the shoulder piecelower edge being positioned to engage the body piece upper edge withsaid engaging edges being formed to engage at an angle such that the armhole edge and the neck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope at an angleupwardly and outwardly away from the body piece central edge, whereinthe width of a shoulder piece between the arm hole and neck hole edgesbeing considerably less than the width of a body piece between its sideand central edges so that a portion of the body piece upper edge formsan arm hole with the arm hole edge of a shoulder piece. .Iaddend..Iadd.23. A flotation vest having an outer shell including a backsection and left and right front sections joined to the back section atthe top and at the sides to form arm holes, and internal buoyancy meanscarried by the shell and including front portions formed by at leastfour pieces of buoyancy material when properly fitted edgewise together,form a plurality of quadrilateral pieces such that waste material isminimized in cutting the pieces from rectangular sheets, the frontbuoyancy portions include a lower body piece and a shoulder piececarried by each of the left and right front sections, each of said bodypieces having a lower edge, a central edge, a side edge, and an upperedge, each shoulder piece including a lower edge, an arm hole edge, aneck hole edge, and an upper edge, the shoulder piece lower edge beingpositioned to engage the body piece upper edge with said engaging edgesbeing formed to engage at an angle such that the arm hole edge and theneck hole edge of the shoulder piece slope at an angle upwardly andoutwardly away from the body piece central edge, wherein the width of ashoulder piece between the arm hole and neck hole edges beingconsiderably less than the width of a body piece between its side andcentral edges a portion of the body piece upper edge forms an arm holewith the arm hole edge of a shoulder piece. .Iaddend.